Wake Up Call: Uber Top Lawyer Said to Be Leaving

September 13, 2017

• With Uber Technologies Inc. facing federal investigations and lawsuits, its new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi already needed to find a new general counsel to replace the recently promoted Salle Yoo. Now, Yoo is leaving her job as chief legal officer as soon as the company finds a new GC, sources tell Bloomberg News. (Bloomberg) (The Information)

• What’s going on at Ropes & Gray? Big Law Business interviewed managing partner David Chapin and London office head Mike Goetz after a series of departures of senior partners to rivals around the world. Both said that context of the turnover is key: “Many who have left — we haven’t necessarily prevented them from moving, to say it as politely as I can,” said Chapin. “Some we wish have stayed.” The pair also answered questions about the overall direction of the firm. (BLB)

• Burford Capital, the litigation financing firm, said it has hired a veteran financial services in-house lawyer to be its general counsel, based in New York. Mark Klein, who spent 13 years at UBS and had stints at other financial services companies, said he will work at Burford to “mesh the different legal functions across the businesses.” (Corporate Counsel)

• The Manhattan district attorney is recommending prison time for former Dewey & LeBoeuf chief financial officer Joel Sanders, convicted earlier this year of concealing the firm’s teetering finances before it fell into bankruptcy. (New York Law Journal)

• Law firms with offices in Florida are reporting they did not suffer severe damage from Hurricane Irma. (BLB) But large accounting and law firms are evacuating staff from the British Virgin Islands after the storm killed at least five people and devastated infrastructure in the territory. (Financial Times)

• Edith Windsor, the Manhattan resident whose love affair formed the basis for the 2013 Supreme Court decision establishing federal rights for same-sex married couples, has died. She was 88. (Bloomberg via BLB) Recent actions by President Donald Trump have snuffed out any optimism that gay-rights supporters had at the outset of his presidency. (Bloomberg)

Equifax

• The massive hack of consumer data at Equifax Inc. triggered demands on Capitol Hill for stiffer rules and new requirements for what financial companies must do to fend off cyberattacks. (Bloomberg)

• JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. are defending their practice of requiring customers to resolve disputes through arbitration, just as the Equifax breach complicates efforts to fend off rules that would make it much easier for consumers to sue banks. (Bloomberg via BLB)

• Equifax’s lack of transparency about the breach makes it difficult for the credit-reporting agency’s competitors to check the security of their own information. (Bloomberg)

• Equifax’s website says John Kelley III is head of its legal department and responsible for security and compliance. (Corporate Counsel)

• The founder of the DoNotPay bot that helps people challenge parking tickets online is using a similar model to help people sue Equifax in small claims court. (Mashable)

Legal Market

• Morrison & Foerster said it hired Robert S. Litt, a former GC for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence who was a key member of the U.S. team that negotiated a major transatlantic data protection framework with the European Commission. Litt, a former partner at Arnold and Porter, LLP, and at Williams & Connolly LLP, is joining MoFo as of counsel in Washington and will advise clients on national security and privacy, white collar investigations, and government enforcement. (Security Info Watch)

• The U.S. aviation group that took off from Dentons has landed at LeClairRyan and includes nine lawyers and eight staff members. (National Law Journal)

• Twentieth Century Fox owner Rupert Murdoch’s $15.2 billion bid to buy up Sky Plc faces a month’s long investigation, as U.K. regulators question if Fox will comply with the country’s broadcasting standards, among other things. Q&A. (Bloomberg)

• Opinion: Disasters like hurricanes Harvey and Irma cast light on how lawyers’ rules hurt Americans who need legal help in personal disasters, writes a professor of law and economics at the University of Southern California. (Los Angeles Times)

Legal Actions

• Exxon Mobil Corp.’s attempt to use “accountant-client privilege” to avoid handing over audit documents in New York’s politically charged climate-change probe was dealt a final blow by New York’s top court. (Bloomberg)

• Former New York Knicks star Charles Oakley is suing team owner James Dolan for defamation. (Bloomberg)

Regulators and Enforcement

• The U.S. alleges in a new lawsuit filed in Brooklyn that Paul Mangione, a former Deutsche Bank AG head of subprime trading, defrauded investors in mortgage-backed securities sold before the financial crisis. (Bloomberg)

• The U.S. Supreme Court reinforced Trump’s travel ban, saying he can bar thousands of refugees from entering the country while the justices prepare to hear a broader challenge to the policy. (Bloomberg)

• A divided Supreme Court reinstated disputed congressional and state voting maps in Texas, blocking two lower court rulings that said the Republican-backed district lines were the product of racial discrimination. (Bloomberg)

• A remorseful Martin Shkreli, facing prison after he was convicted of fraud, told a judge his online postings offering a $5,000 reward for someone to grab Hillary Clinton’s hair were “never intended to cause alarm or promote any act of violence.” (Bloomberg)

• Las Vegas gambler Billy Walters will have to sit in prison while a federal appeals court considers whether to overturn his conviction for insider trading. (Bloomberg)

Laterals, Moves, Law Firm Work

• Washington-based Buckley Sandler hired Christina Tchen, the former chief of staff to First Lady Michelle Obama, as a partner and to manage its four-year-old office in Chicago. (Am Law Daily)

• Duane Morris has added Robert Kadlec, a veteran partner at Sidley Austin, to expand the L.A.-based corporate practice it started earlier this year after bringing onboard local boutique Horgan Rosen Beckham & Coren. (The Recorder)

• Many Big Law firms have a “gap” in the family leave benefits they offer lawyers on one hand, and staff on the other. But there are a handful of firms that are “doing right by their staff.” (Above the Law)

Technology

• JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon called bitcoin a “fraud” and said he would fire any employee trading the cryptocurrency. (Bloomberg)

• Amazon.com Inc. is in the European Union’s cross hairs because its rapid expansion may have been fueled by tax measures that slashed its costs, according to an EU official spearheading a state-aid probe into the online giant. (Bloomberg)

Miscellaneous

• A disciplinary body reprimanded and suspended without pay a Canadian judge who wore a “Make America Great Again” hat on the bench the morning after Trump won the presidential election last year. (New York Times)